The gender gap: one more bridge that Michael built

[Butterfly]

The gender gap: one more bridge that Michael built
Examiner.com
By Robin Cooper
July 1st 2009


http://www.examiner.com/x-11733-Philadelphia-Sex-Advice-Examiner~y2009m7d1-The-gender-gap-one-more-bridge-that-Michael-built


Soon after his big success, Michael Jackson began to get obvious plastic surgeries, transforming him from an attractive African American young man into a more Caucasian and effeminate "boy-man." His critics would start claiming that he was trying not to be black. Perhaps it was more than that. Perhaps Michael Jackson wanted to prove to his audience that race, gender and other superficial categorizations are not the things that make a person who he or she is.

Could Michael Jackson have been the first effeminate male role model? Gender lines are more often being blurred, with metrosexuality being more accepted in even smaller towns and more female CEOs being born every day. Michael and Janet Jackson's 1995 merge for "Scream" exemplified the beauty that can be found in physical androgyny. Both Janet and Michael achieve a beauty and sexual energy despite their leveled gender representations in that video.